NanoBioMEMS technologies mean intellectualized and automated micromechanical medical/chemical equipment capable of immediately sensing, measuring, analyzing and diagnosing physical, chemical and biological interactions between biomolecules.
As one of NanoBioMEMS technologies, conventional microchannel resonant balances (microbalances, microcantilevers) capable of measuring weights of single living cells to a femtogram unit have been suggested and conventional microchannel resonant balances are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,282,329 (Oct. 16, 2007).
A measurement principle of conventional microchannel resonant balances is as follows. A hollow resonator is made and a fluidic liquid molecular sample is injected thereto. The resonator is surrounded with a vacuum, while the liquid phase of fluid molecules are disposed in the resonator. In a case where the fluid sample disposed in the resonator includes solid particles, a vibration frequency of the resonator is measured when the solid particles move in the resonator, such that the mass of the particles can be precisely measured.
However, conventional microchannel resonant balances have problems in that they are very difficult to form and are not easy to manufacture because they require a delicate and complicated manufacturing process. In particular, conventional microchannel resonant balances have problems of complicated manufacturing process and increased manufacturing time because sections for microchannels should first be formed on a silicon substrate and complicated patterning and etching processes entailing various steps should then be performed for forming beams of microcantilever structures including the microchannels using the sections.
Accordingly, recently, various researches have been made to simplify the structure and manufacturing process of microchannel resonators, but they are insufficient and there is thus a need for development thereof.
Further, recently, a channel resonator by a nano-scale unit has been required so as to measure various characteristics of the object in much various conditions, but it is difficult to manufacture the resonator by the nano-scale unit by the existing manufacturing process and thus the development thereof has been urgently required.